234 
NATURE 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
OF the Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes 
de Moscow, we have just received the first, second, and 
third parts for the year 1869. The greater part of the im- 
portant papers in the second part are on Botanical subjects. 
They include a monographic revision, with tables of 
species, of the Heliotropes of the eastern Mediterranean 
region, in which seventy species are cited, and twenty- 
two of them described as new; a notice of the occur- 
rence of the white Truffle (R/AZzofogon albus) in the 
neighbourhood of Moscow ; a note on Empusa musce ; 
and a revision of the species of Characium found in 
the vicinity of Charkow. Colonel Motschoulsky con- 
tinues his seemingly interminable “enumeration” of 
the new species of Coleoptera collected by him during 
his travels, leading us to wonder how any one man 
could have collected so many beetles, and, having got 
them, how he can write so much aboutthem. This, how- 
ever, is but a small instalment. Another entomological 
paper of more consequence is a monograph of the genus 
Abacetus by Baron Chandoir; M. Solsky has a notice 
of some beetles from Eastern Russia, and M. E. Ballion 
another on two species of sawflies. The most interesting 
zoological paper is on the anatomy and development of 
Pedicellina (Sars), by M. B. Uljanin, illustrated with two 
plates. In this paper our countryman, Mr. Gosse, is 
absurdly quoted as “Goose.” The remaining papers are 
by Dr. Ferd. Miiller on the determination of the magnetic 
inclination, and by M. R. Hermann on the composition 
of Fergusonite. The last part consists of a series of eoges 
on Alexander Von Humboldt, read at a centenary celebra- 
tion of the great German philosopher. These papers, by 
different authors, treat of Humboldt from various points 
of views: as aman and asa naturalist ; in his relations 
to Russia ; as an investigator in the domain of electro- 
physiology ; as a botanist ; as an investigator of physical 
geography and climatology. As they are all in Russian 
we fear these memoirs will find few readers in this 
country. A German translation of the first of these 
will, however, be found in the first part of the Bz//etin, 
which includes a variety of papers on Natural History 
subjects. An important geological paper is one by Prof. 
Trautschold, on secular elevations and sinkings of the 
earth’s surface. Dr. D. Zernoff’s memoir on the olfactory 
organs in the Cephalopoda, which is illustrated with two 
plates, is a valuable contribution to the anatomy of the 
Mollusca. In an important memoir, also accompanied by 
two plates, M. J. Borsenkow describes the developmental 
history of the ovary and egg in the common fowl. For the 
botanist we have a continuation of M. L. Gruner’s cata- 
logue of plants collected on the Dnieper and the lower part 
of the Kouka; and a notice, by M. Alexander Becker, of 
Sarepta, of a journey to Debent, which also, as usual, 
includes entomological notices. For the entomologist 
finally we have a catalogue of the Coleoptera of the 
vicinity of Jaroslaw, by M. von Bell; remarks upon some 
species as cited in Harold’s great catalogue of Beetles, 
by M. E. Ballion; and, from the inexhaustible Mot- 
schulsky, a further instalment of descriptions of new 
species of Coleoptera. 
Fiir Baum und Wald. Eine Schutzschrift an Fach- 
manner und Laien gerichtet, Von Dr. M. J. Schleiden. 
(Leipzig: Engelmann, London; Williams and 
Norgate.) 
A TREATISE on arboriculture, in which, mingled with some 
extravagant sentimentalism, are many useful hints as to 
the growth of trees and forests. There can be no doubt 
that within the last 2,000 years a great amelioration has 
taken place in the climate of Central and Northern 
Europe. Varro speaks of the climate of the south of 
France as unfavourable to the growth of the vine or olive. 
Virgil describes the Crimea as subject to the rigours of an 
[Fuly 21, 1870 
eight-months’ winter; Diodorus Siculus narrates how 
whole armies crossed the frozen Rhine, Rhone, and 
Danube ; and there is unanimity of testimony among 
other writers to the same effect. Dr. Schleiden attributes 
this change in the climate, to a great extent, to the de- 
struction of forests when the country became more 
thickly peopled, combined, no doubt, with improved 
drainage. He points out, however, that disforesting may 
be carried too far, until it becomes positively injurious 
instead of beneficial. The judicious mean he believes to 
have been arrived at in England and Ireland, while in 
some parts of Continental Europe, especially Switzerland 
and the Tyrol, the almost entire destruction of the timber 
has caused a diminution of the rainfall to an extent very 
prejudicial to the crops. Another result in mountainous 
countries has been the constant accumulation of rain- 
clouds around the mountain-peaks, and consequent destruc- 
tive floods and devastating avalanches. In confirmation 
of Dr. Schleiden’s views, it may be stated that in some 
parts of India the drought has been so severe for several 
successive years since the destruction of the forests, that 
the Government has ordered the planting of an enormous 
number of trees. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
(Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expr.sszd 
by his Correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. | 
Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise 
Ir may be interesting to many of your readers to know that a 
specimen of the rare and beautiful twelve-wired Paradise Bird 
(Seleucides alba) is now alive in the Royal Zoological Gardens at 
Florence. Signor G. E. Cerruti, who has recently returned from 
an official tour in the Moluccas and New Guinea, writes me that 
he obtained it from the Rajah of Salwatty, and that although 
very wild at first, it soon became tame and quiet; and that he 
had very little trouble in bringing it home. Here is another 
proof that these wonderful birds can be brought to Europe with- 
out difficulty, and once here, with proper care and ample space, 
there is little doubt they would be long-lived. 
ALFRED R. WALLACE 
Spontaneous Generation 
Dr. H. C. Bastian, who has recently called attention to the 
nature of the evidence before scientific men in favour of the theory 
of so-called spontaneous generation, has supplemented it by fresh 
experiments of his own. The dilemma in which the opponents 
of this doctrine are now placed is that they must either admit it, 
or else allow that a temperature of 150° C. maintained for four 
hours, and applied by means of liquid, is incapable of killing the 
germs of infusoria. Many, doubtless, of these opponents will 
courageously mount this horn of the dilemma, and make the 
requisite enlargement of their ideas on the subject of vital re- 
sistance tochange. There are, however, other difficulties in the 
way. - For instance, great difficulties are involved in the assump-_ 
tion that the atmosphere constitutes a storehouse of germs of all 
kinds ready to burst out into life on the occurrence of suitable 
conditions. 
However small these germs may be, still they must weigh 
something. And there must be very many of them, seeing that 
there must be an immense number of kinds of germs, if a volume 
of air is to supply to any given infusion precisely the right kinds- 
of germs suitable to the conditions provided by the infusion. 
Now chemists are in possession of data showing that the pos- 
sible amount of organic nitrogenous matter in common clear 
water and common good air is remarkably small—so small, in- 
deed, that the question may fairly be asked—Isit large enough 
to admit of the requisite number of germs, the existence of 
which the vitalists assume in water and air? 
By the employment of our ammonia method, Chapman, 
C 
Br ne 
Smith, and myself have shown that the organic ammonia from — 
a kilogramme of good filtered water often falls as low as 0°05 
milligramme, and Dr, Angus Smith has shown that a kilogramme 
ee 
